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Disney remakes the Lion King
So, throughout the decade Disney has been remaking a lot of their old animated films into live action, and for the most part I've been pretty ambivalent, but with the announcement of their remake of The Lion King, I am getting very annoyed. So far we've gone through two Alice in Wonderlands, a Sleeping Beauty remake, a Jungle Book, and a Cinderella. Whether you like or you hate these movies, most people seem to agree that the original animated versions were better. Then a Beauty and the Beast remake was announced. Despite that movie only coming out 25 years ago, I still wasn't that annoyed. But The Lion King is where I drew the line. It's not because The Lion King ''is my favorite Disney movie; ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame is, and they likely aren't going to remake their less-popular movies, although I do really like The Lion King. There are three main reasons why I'm not too keen on this. Number one is that, like I've said, and like everyone else has said, we are SICK and TIRED of these goddamn remakes. That being said, Disney is interesting because their specialty is making adaptations. Before Zootopia this year, their last movie that didn't come from a source material was Bolt in 2008. That being said, most of the movies in between were at least Disney's first attempt at new source materials, like The Snow Queen or Rapunzel. The only exception there was Winnie the Pooh, and that was more of a continuation than an actual sequel. My main objection is that unlike any of those other live action remakes we've gotten so far is that The Lion King is one of the movies in the cannon that most needs to be animated, and it shows a monumental disrespect to the medium that they built themselves on to be doing this thing. Remember, one of the best attributes to The Lion King is that it had stellar animation, some of the best in the entire cannon. Also, this movie is 100% talking animals, and if you're making a movie where literally every character is CGI it makes it... feel like it really should have been animated. If you think that this complaint isn't very valid, keep in mind that Disney is remaking their Night on Bald Mountain segment from Fantasia into live-action. They're remaking parts of a movie that was made specifically to show off animation into live action. Third complaint, The Lion King was released only 22 years ago, and they've been re-releasing the animated version to theaters every so often. Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book, Alice in Wonderland ''I get them. Those movies are all over 50 years old. But when it comes to movies like ''The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, there are many, many people around who saw those movies when they were originally in theaters. ----- At this point, it's common knowledge that Disney has been fucking up the public domain. Every few years they go to Congress, and lobby to make it so all of their movies stay firmly out of the public domain. They do this while continually making movies sourced from the public domain. Let me put it this way. If copyright laws were the way that they lobbied for when this country was founded, Disney would not have been able to make their animated versions of The Jungle Book or Alice in Wonderland. They would not have been in the public domain when they made those movies. Even though their authors were long dead. At the same time, if copyright laws were right now the way they were when the country was founded, it'd still be copyright infringement to make your own versions of The Lion King or Disney's Beauty and the Beast. It almost feels like they're showing off, after kicking down the step-ladder. Although I don't believe that that's the case here. I think Disney is suffering the consequences of its own greed and pride. Disney is best at adaptations. Almost all of their greatest films are an adaptation of a story that was already in existence. But they were so adamant in making sure that no one could use their stuff, they gutted the public domain, and in turn made it harder and harder for them to find public source domain to work from. Disney is running out of old fairy tales and stories to make adaptations of. So now, not only do we get the live action Jungle Book. We also get the live action Jungle Book 2. Hopefully that one ends up being better than the animated Jungle Book 2. Works in the public domain benefit all of society, even big corporations like Disney. If they didn't tinker with the law, just off of the top of my head, The Twlight Zone would be in public domain. Imagine what we could do with the ideas, characters, and scenarios explored in that series. The Chronicles of Narnia, Around the World in 80 Days, anything before the year 1959. And do you know what the really, really funny thing is? By denying people the ability to copy the past, it seems like every single movie is a remake - copying the ideas from the past. That's because these movies and products are locked behind people who think the same way, and don't want to take chances. Imagine if people who actually cared about these products were allowed to make their own adaptations of them. Sure, you'd get crap, but you'd get a lot of interesting new takes. Compare Disney's original Alice in Wonderland to American McGee's Alice Let me put it this way - how many products have we gotten because "zombies" were public domain? We've been absolutely drenched in them, but could you imagine if just one person owned the idea of a "zombie" like just one person owns the idea of a Xenomorph? Copyright is important, but there's a balance. ----- I'm actually working on a review that talks about the reuse of ideas, and creativity in general. The internet has done really strange things when it comes to our ideas of copyright, but I don't think that it's the internet alone. Until the 70's, people were essentially allowed to use the works created by the previous generation to create their own new spin on it, things that could better adapt to the messages and the feels of their time. I'm actually working on a review that talks a lot about the importance of ideas being free, and how remixing creates better art and a better society. It's going to be an atrocity review, but it's not the worst show that I've ever seen, yet some of the fanart for this show looks better than the show itself. I'll be able to word myself a little bit better there. Category:Miscellaneous